New Optus MVNO, amaysim, promises cheap and simple mobile service

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 23 November 2010 14:11

Your IT - Mobility

Australia has a new mobile service provider, amaysim, which is using the Optus 3G network and offering an alternative to complexity and obfuscation of mobile capped plans etc, with a single, simple, SIM-only tariff.

The company's four founders started and ran a similar business in Europe, simyo, which they have sold to Dutch telco, KPN and they have moved en masse to Australia with their families to launch amaysim.

amaysim claims that the average Australian mobile phone user can expect to save up to 50 percent on their mobile phone bill with amaysim, based on the European experience. According to amaysim, its European predecessor, simyo - which launched in 2005 -  and companies like it now account for 30 percent of subscribers in Europe.

While the amaysim offering is certainly simple, at first glance it does not seem particularly competitive against the very large included call and SMS allowance on many capped plans, and their free on-net calling.

amaysim CEO, Rolf Hansen, told iTWire: "We are not saying we are a 'cure-all'. The model we have is geared to low to medium ARPU users who privately pay their mobile phone bill and who want to be in control of their spending and how much the spend on a monthly basis. I think we have sweet spot of about 92, 1.5 minute calls per month'¦ Of the 18.1m Australians who have a mobile phone service about 15 million pay their own bill or pay for a second phone."

He added: "We did a survey of 1100 Australians and [extrapolating from that] found that 5.8 million Australians said they would like to give our model a go at the rates we offer, and that pretty much reflects what we found in every European market."

Amaysim is offering calls to standard fixed and mobile numbers in Australia for 15c per minute with no flagfall, SMS at 12 cents each and data at 5c per MB. There is no unmetered access to popular social network sites like Facebook, which would put many younger users off the service. Likewise, they are prolific texters and often attracted to the 'free text' offered in many capped plans.

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